Intel's ambitious fab expansion plans, which are currently facing a temporary halt, are of significant importance. The German government, as reported by HardwareLuxx, is now considering redirecting €10 billion from the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF) initially allocated to Intel, potentially returning these subsidies to the federal budget. The pause on Intel's investment to 2029-2030 (according to Tom's Hardware) not only threatens Germany's hopes of becoming one of semiconductor industry leaders but has also sparked debate over the intended use of this substantial financial support. Given the rise of geopolitical tensions, the urgency and significance of the German semiconductor industry in the current economic landscape cannot be overstated. The potential negative impact of the halt on Intel's investment is a cause for concern and engagement.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner has proposed that the funds be reallocated to address other economic needs, emphasizing fiscal responsibility amid current challenges. In contrast, Economic Affairs Minister Robert Habeck, whose department manages the KTF, opposes this reallocation, arguing that the fund should continue to support long-term economic growth and environmental initiatives. This disagreement between Lindner and Habeck illustrates the competing priorities within the government over the best use of public funds in uncertain economic times. The urgency of resolving this impasse is clear, as it will require navigating these tricky political waters while weighing the strategic importance of securing significant semiconductor investments in Germany. If Intel continues its Magdeburg expansion by the end of this decade, the terms for state subsidies might be changed. However, that is something to worry about in the distant future, as the blue giant has the priority of getting its financials back in line first.

The launch of Intel's "Arrow Lake-S" Core Ultra 200S series of desktop processors has been a bit of a disappointment for gamers, given a slight regression in the new generation's gaming performance. While excelling in productivity tasks, these CPUs are not seemingly the top choice for gamers. According to data from Mindfactory, one of Germany's largest retailers, Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs didn't account for even one Intel-powered CPU sale since the October 24 launch. This is a massive contradiction to US-based retailers like Amazon and Newegg, which sold out their Arrow Lake stock swiftly. However, the German retailer paints a different picture.

In terms of units sold, there were 730 AMD CPU units sold, while only 40 Intel. AMD accounted for 94.81% of that week's sales, with an average selling price of 267 Euros and Intel's average selling price of 388 Euros per unit. It is worth pointing out that this information is only based on one week of sales and should not be a general guide for Intel Arrow Lake sales in Germany. We are still left to see how many units will be sold in the coming weeks, especially with the upcoming holiday season. Below is the picture from TechEpiphany on X, showing all the sold units and their quantity.

The EuroHPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU) has signed a purchase agreement with IQM Quantum Computers (IQM), a global leader in designing, building, and selling superconducting quantum computers. Under the agreement, IQM will deliver two advanced Radiance quantum systems of 54 qubits and 150 qubits in the second half of 2025 and by the end of 2026, respectively.

The two distinct systems, featuring high-quality qubits and industry-leading fidelities will play a pivotal role in executing quantum algorithms across a range of application domains.

Alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, senior European government officials and European-based global enterprises, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled the first IBM Quantum Data Center located outside of the United States. It is the company's second quantum data center in the world and marks a significant expansion of its fleet of advanced, utility-scale quantum systems available to global users via the cloud.

Now online in Ehningen, Germany, Europe's first IBM Quantum Data Center includes two new utility-scale, IBM Quantum Eagle-based systems, and will soon feature a new IBM Quantum Heron-based system. These systems are capable of performing computations beyond the brute-force simulation capabilities of classical computers.

AMD Ryzen 5 7600X3D Socket AM5 desktop processor isn't a MicroCenter USA-exclusive anymore, with the chip now being available across the pond in Germany. Major German retailer Mindfactory.de has the processor listed at €329 (including taxes). This puts its pricing €60 less than that of the popular Ryzen 7 7800X3D (going for €390 on the site). Unlike the MicroCenter deal, the Mindfactory listing is standalone—you get the processor in a retail PIB package, and not part of a bundle. To sweeten things, you also get an AMD-branded T-shirt.

The 6-core/12-thead processor is based on the older "Zen 4" microarchitecture, but supercharged with 3D V-cache technology, which gives it 96 MB of last-level cache that is known to have a significant impact on gaming performance. The 7600X3D comes with a 4.10 GHz base frequency, and 4.70 GHz maximum turbo frequency. The retail PIB box resembles that of the 7800X3D, but with the Ryzen 5 brand extension. There's no cooling solution included in the box, but the cooling requirements of this processor aren't steep, with its TDP being rated at just 65 W.

According to a recent report from Reuters, tech giant Intel is facing a significant legal challenge as shareholders file a lawsuit following a dramatic plunge in the company's stock price. The legal action comes from Intel's recent announcement of dividend suspensions and plans to lay off over 15,000 employees. The semiconductor behemoth saw its market value plummet by a staggering $32 billion in a single day, leaving investors reeling. The Construction Laborers Pension Trust of Greater St. Louis has initiated a proposed class action suit, naming Intel, CEO Pat Gelsinger, and CFO David Zinsner as defendants. The plaintiffs allege that the company made misleading statements about its business operations and manufacturing capabilities, artificially inflating its stock price between January 25 and August 1.

Intel's financial woes stem from underperforming contract foundry operations and 1% drop in revenue during the second quarter of 2024. While it may seem miniscule, declining revenue is paired with a negative 15.3% operating margin, resulting in a net loss of $1.61 billion. The company's August 1 announcement caught many shareholders off guard, prompting accusations of inadequate disclosure and transparency. This lawsuit is just one of several legal battles Intel is currently strangled in. The company is also locked in a patent dispute with R2 Semiconductor across multiple European countries, centering on voltage regulation technology. While Intel has secured a victory in the UK, it faces ongoing litigation in Germany, France, and Italy. Adding to Intel's troubles, a separate class action lawsuit is being explored on behalf of customers who purchased potentially faulty 13th and 14th-generation processors. The company also canceled its September 2024 Innovation event, citing poor financials, without any words on Arrow Lake or Lunar Lake. While the cancelation of events is sad, it is necessary to get financials back on track, and product launches should continue as usual.

After many back and forths, it now appears that TSMC is finally getting ready to start construction of its fab in Dresden, Germany. Multiple news outlets are reporting that TSMC is getting ready to start production on its new fab within the next few weeks, which is ahead of the expected Q4 groundbreaking. That said, TSMC has yet to announce an official date for a groundbreaking ceremony or a date when construction will start, but according to media reports TSMC's Chairman and CEO C.C. Wei will be in Germany at the end of August to sign documents with the German government and during this trip, the groundbreaking ceremony is expected to take place.

Assuming everything goes according to plan, the Dresden fab is expected to start production sometime in late 2027, but it's far from a cutting edge fab, as it'll mainly be supplying the European automotive industry with components. The new fab should start its life with two different process technologies, namely a 28 or 22 nm planar CMOS node as well as a 16 or 12 nm FinFET node. The Dresden fab is said to have a production capacity of around 40,000 12-inch wafers monthly. The new fab is expected to be an investment in excess of €10 billion for TSMC, with the city of Dresden spending an additional €250 million for a special water supply system and enhancements to the power grid. Unlike similar projects, TSMC will not be the sole owner of the new fab, as Infineon, Robert Bosch and NXP are each taking a 10 percent stake in the fab.

On June 5th, Vanguard and NXP announced plans to jointly establish VisionPower Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (VSMC) in Singapore to build a 12-inch wafer plant. TrendForce posits that this move reflects the trend of global supply chains shifting "Out of China, Out of Taiwan"(OOC/OOT), with Taiwanese companies accelerating their overseas expansion to improve regional capacity flexibility and competitiveness.

TrendForce noted that the semiconductor supply chain has been diversifying over the past two years to mitigate geopolitical and pandemic-related risks, forming two major segments: China's domestic supply chain and a non-China supply chain. Recent US tariff increases have accelerated this shift, leading to increased orders from American customers.

According to the report from Volksstimme.de, Intel has delayed its Magdeburg fab construction until 2025 due to difficulties in acquiring suitable land. The company had initially planned to begin construction in 2024, but the process has been slowed significantly due to the availability of suitable land. The Magdeburg plant is a significant investment for Intel, with the company planning to invest around €30 billion in the facility. The plant is expected to create thousands of jobs and play a crucial role in the company's European expansion plans. However, the delay in construction is likely to impact these plans and may result in a longer timeline for the plant's completion.

The delay is attributed to the difficulty in finding suitable land for the plant. Intel's original plan of producing a factory on the land concluded that there was humus-rich black soil up to 40 cm in the ground, which would get removed for usage by agricultural fields in Germany. However, now the top layer of black soil, which needs to be excavated, is measured up to 90 cm in depth, which doesn't allow fab construction to start and requires the removal of the soil in order to satisfy the safety regulations. This useful soil has to be extracted first before being "contaminated" with concrete and other types of foundation soils like gravel. The state of Saxony-Anhalt postponed the construction until the required soil was removed and regulations were met. This will supposedly happen by the end of 2024, and construction will start in 2025.

The 63rd edition of the TOP500 reveals that Frontier has once again claimed the top spot, despite no longer being the only exascale machine on the list. Additionally, a new system has found its way into the Top 10.

The Frontier system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA remains the most powerful system on the list with an HPL score of 1.206 EFlop/s. The system has a total of 8,699,904 combined CPU and GPU cores, an HPE Cray EX architecture that combines 3rd Gen AMD EPYC CPUs optimized for HPC and AI with AMD Instinct MI250X accelerators, and it relies on Cray's Slingshot 11 network for data transfer. On top of that, this machine has an impressive power efficiency rating of 52.93 GFlops/Watt - putting Frontier at the No. 13 spot on the GREEN500.

As a part of its Q1 earnings call discussion, one of the largest semiconductor manufacturers, TSMC, has unveiled a strategic move to charge a premium for chips manufactured at its newly established overseas fabrication plants. During an earnings call, TSMC's CEO, C.C. Wei, announced that the company will impose higher pricing for chips produced outside Taiwan to offset the higher operational costs associated with these international locations. This move aims to maintain TSMC's target gross margin of 53% amidst rising expenses such as inflation and elevated electricity costs. This decision comes as TSMC expands its global footprint with new facilities in the United States, Germany, and Japan (JAMS) to meet the increasing demand for semiconductor chips worldwide. The company's new US-based Arizona facility, known as Fab 21, has faced delays due to equipment installation issues and labor negotiations.

Chips produced at this site, utilizing TSMC's advanced N5 and N4 nodes, could cost between 20% to 30% more than those manufactured in Taiwan. TSMC's strategy to manage the cost disparities across different geographic locations involves strategic pricing, securing government support, and leveraging its manufacturing technology leadership. This approach reflects the company's commitment to maintaining its competitive edge while navigating the complexities of global semiconductor manufacturing in today's fragmented market. Introducing a location premium is expected to impact American semiconductor designers, who may need to pass these costs on to specific market segments, particularly those with lower price sensitivity, such as government-related projects. Despite these challenges, TSMC's overseas expansion underscores its adaptive strategies in the face of global economic pressures and industry demands, ensuring its continued position as a leading player in the semiconductor industry.

Two years ago, Intel Corporation and the Italian Government initiated negotiations over the "enabling" of a new state-of-the-art back-end manufacturing facility—a potential investment of up to 4.5 billion euros was mentioned at the time. Italy's chipmaking fund was put together in order to attract several big semiconductor firms, but Team Blue appeared to be the primary target. This week, Minister Adolfo Urso confirmed to media outlets that Intel had: "given up or postponed its investments in France and Italy, compared with others that it plans in Germany." Intel has not commented on this announcement according to a Reuters report—a spokesperson declined to make a statement.

Italy's Business Minister stated that he will welcome a continuation of negotiations, if Intel leadership chooses to diversify its construction portfolio outside of Germany: "if it decides to complete those projects, we are still here." His nation is set to receive further investments, following a recent announcement from Silicon Box—the Singapore-headquartered advanced semiconductor packaging company has signed an up to €3.2 billion deal. Their new Italian facility will: "enable next generation applications in artificial intelligence (AI), high performance computing (HPC)," and other segments. Urso reckons that "there will be others in coming months." He also added that a ministry task force had conducted talks with unnamed Taiwanese groups.

The HPC research projects DEEP-SEA, IO-SEA and RED-SEA are wrapping up this month after a three-year project term. The three projects worked together to develop key technologies for European Exascale supercomputers, based on the Modular Supercomputing Architecture (MSA), a blueprint architecture for highly efficient and scalable heterogeneous Exascale HPC systems. To achieve this, the three projects collaborated on system software and programming environments, data management and storage, as well as interconnects adapted to this architecture. The results of their joint work will be presented at a co-design workshop and poster session at the EuroHPC Summit (Antwerp, 18-21 March, www.eurohpcsummit.eu).

Two months ago, NVIDIA introduced its GeForce RTX 40 SUPER series to the market, bringing a trio of models: RTX 4070 SUPER, RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, and RTX 4080 SUPER. Today, according to the report from ComputerBase, NVIDIA's latest trio has recorded a drop in pricing recently, and it now retails under MSRP in German stores. The RTX 4070 SUPER started with an MSRP of 659 Euros ($599 in the US) and is now available from 589 Euros. Its older brother, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, started with an MSRP listing of 889 Euros ($799 in the US) and is now retailing from 840 Euros. Lastly, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has been listed at 1,109 Euros ($999 in the US) and is now retailing with a small discount at 1,092 Euros.

Once NVIDIA launched a new GPU generation, it became a custom for these cards to be retailed over their MSRP long before prices were adjusted and settled. However, with the latest SUPER refresh, this seems to be one of the fastest price adjustments. This could be caused by either an improvement in the supply chain or leveled supply and demand, making it so that these cards are finally trading below their launch-level MSRPs.

The Moore Threads MTT S80 first attracted wider media attention last summer due to it being introduced as the world's first PCIe Gen 5 gaming graphics card. Unfortunately, its performance prowess in gaming benchmarks did not match early expectations, especially for a 200 W TDP-rated unit with 4096 "MUSA" cores. Evaluators discovered that driver issues have limited the full potential of MTT GPUs—it is speculated that Moore Threads has simply repurposed existing PowerVR architecture under their in-house design: "Chunxaio." The Chinese firm has concentrated on driver improvements in the interim—mid-February experimentations indicated 100% performance boosts for MTT S80 and S70 discrete GPUs courtesy of driver version 240.90. Germany's ComputerBase managed to import Moore Threads MTT S80 and S30 models for testing purposes—in an effort to corroborate recently published performance figures, as disclosed by Asian review outlets.

The Moore Thread MTT S80—discounted down to $164 last October—was likely designed with MMO gamers in mind. VideoCardz (based on ComputerBase findings) discussed the card's struggles when weighed against Team Red's modern day integrated solutions: "S80 falls short when compared to the Ryzen 5 8600G, featuring the Radeon 760M iGPU with RDNA 3 graphics. A geometric mean across various titles reveals the S80's lag, but there are exceptions, like DOTA 2, where it takes the lead in framerate. It's clear that MTT GPUs (have a) less emphasized focus on supporting AAA titles." ComputerBase confirmed that DirectX 12 API support is still lacking, meaning that many popular Western games titles remain untested on the Moore Threads MTT S80 graphics card. The freshly launched entry-level MTT S30 card produced "1/4 of the performance" when compared to its flagship sibling.

Tulpar, an emerging PC gaming hardware company, has been doing the rounds across several European tech events—they demoed Meteor Lake-powered handheld devices at last month's Intel Extreme Masters tour stop in Katowice, Poland. A Hardwareluxx Germany report presented evidence of the Turkish company expanding into graphics card market sectors—Tulpar exhibited their "customized" Intel Arc A770 16 GB model at a recent trade show in Berlin. Andreas Schilling, resident editor at Hardwareluxx, realized that Tulpar had simply rebadged and color adjusted ASRock's Arc A770 Phantom D OC card design.

Tulpar's product placard boasted about their own "3X Cooling System"—a thin renaming of the already well-known ASRock Phantom Gaming triple-fan cooling solution. Their reliance on OEM designs is not a major revelation—the Tulpar 7-inch handheld gaming PC appears to be based on an existing platform—somewhat similar to Emdoor's EM-GP080MTL. Company representatives estimate that their "first dedicated gaming GPU" will be hitting retail within the third quarter of this year. News outlets have questioned this curious launch window—first generation Intel Arc "Alchemist" graphics cards (released in late 2022) are a tough sell, even with a much improved driver ecosystem delivering significant improvements throughout 2023/2024. Tulpar could be targeting a super budget price point, since Team Blue has signalled that their next-gen "Battlemage" GPUs are due later on in the year.

MSI could be staggering the launch of its Intel Core Ultra-powered Claw gaming handheld, depending on regional availability—VideoCardz has observed contradictory release date data through UK retail channels. A confusing scenario is presented with some listings mentioning March 20, although others outline various dates going into April. MSI's German e-store appears to be the first outlet to have Claw units "in stock," although the active listing indicates that orders will start shipping on March 5. The pre-orderable "Handheld CLAW A1M-036" seems to be the most basic out of MSI's three launch SKUs—€849 (~$921) bags you a model that sports Intel's Core Ultra 5 135H APU and 512 GB of storage.

Preview samples are out in the wild—YouTube reviewers and influencers have started to show off their pre-release units, but Western embargoes are still in effect at the time of writing. Fairly comprehensive comparison videos emerged just over two weeks ago—courtesy of the "Please, Xiao Fengfeng" Bilibili video channel. The MSI Claw (Ultra 7-155H version) was compared to a close handheld rival; an ASUS ROG Ally (Ryzen Z1 Extreme). Overall, the AMD APU-based Ally seemed to outperform MSI's plucky new entrant—it is possible that the latter was disadvantaged with immature chipset drivers. Intel and its hardware partners are attempting to catch up with Team Red's more widespread release of portable-oriented APU packages—another Meteor Lake-based handheld gaming system, Tulpar, was demoed at a recent Intel Extreme Masters event.

Last week, AMD's Ryzen 8000GE desktop APU lineup appeared online—four lower power (TDP of 35 W) SKUs are set to join the already released 65 W TDP AM5 "Hawk Point" family. GucksTV has acquired a flagship 8000GE model, albeit in engineering sample form—a Hong Kong-based Ebay Store lists "AMD Ryzen 7 8700GE ES Tray" processors. At the time of writing only one unit remains in stock, priced at $298.99 with the option for free international delivery. The "hugohk" shop appears to specialize in supplying all sorts of Team Red engineering sample CPUs. GucksTV's German language video review pitches the Ryzen 7 8700GE engineering sample against the finalized retail release Ryzen 7 8700 APU.

AMD has not made any official release date announcements regarding the leaked Ryzen 8000GE range, but VideoCardz believes that "expectations are high that these variants will hit the market soon through system integrators." The GucksTV comparison video shows that: "On average, the single-core of 8700GE performance drops by 5%, while multi-core is 17% below 8700G. For graphics, that's a 23% average drop in performance while requiring 52% less power." The reviewer noted that his engineering sample was not allowing access to memory OC profiles, until a motherboard BIOS update was implemented (most likely via Beta firmware)—granting 6400 MT/s instead of the normal JEDEC rate of 5200 MT/s. The test platform utilized an ASRock A620I Lightning WiFi Mini-ITX mainboard—finalized Ryzen 7 8700GE APUs could be ideal candidates for usage in quiet/low temperature compact form factor systems.

The U.S. Department of Commerce today announced $1.5 billion in planned direct funding for GlobalFoundries (Nasdaq: GFS) (GF) as part of the U.S. CHIPS and Science Act. This investment will enable GF to expand and create new manufacturing capacity and capabilities to securely produce more essential chips for automotive, IoT, aerospace, defense, and other vital markets.

New York-headquartered GF, celebrating its 15th year of operations, is the only U.S.-based pure play foundry with a global manufacturing footprint including facilities in the U.S., Europe, and Singapore. GF is the first semiconductor pure play foundry to receive a major award (over $1.5 billion) from the CHIPS and Science Act, designed to strengthen American semiconductor manufacturing, supply chains and national security. The proposed funding will support three GF projects:

According to Financial Times, a regional court in Düsseldorf, Germany, created a significant setback for Intel on Wednesday, issuing an injunction prohibiting sales of some of its processors due to allegations they infringe on a patent held by R2 Semiconductor. R2, a technology firm based in Palo Alto, California, accused Intel of violating its patent related to processor voltage regulation. The ruling applies to Intel's 10th, 11th, and 12th generation Core processors, known as Ice Lake, Tiger Lake, and Alder Lake, as well as its Ice Lake Xeon server SKUs. Newer processors generations (13th, 14th, etc.) don't infringe the patent. Even though Intel noted that it plans to appeal the decision, the ramifications could extend beyond the company itself. Industry experts warn the court order could lead to a sweeping ban on products containing the disputed Intel chips, including laptops and pre-built PCs from major manufacturers like HP and Dell. R2 has waged an ongoing legal fight across multiple jurisdictions to defend its intellectual property.

After initially filing suit against Intel in the United States, R2 shifted its efforts to Germany and other European countries after its patent was invalidated stateside. Intel strongly denied R2's patent infringement claims, alleging the company's entire business model relies on extracting legal settlements through serial litigation. Intel believes the injunction serves only R2's financial interests while harming consumers, businesses, and the economy. The two firms traded barbs in official statements about the case. R2's CEO, David Fisher, rebuffed Intel's characterization of his company, saying it has only targeted Intel for infringement of its clear IP rights. As the war of words continues, the practical impact of the German court's decision remains uncertain, pending Intel's appeal. However, the preliminary injunction demonstrates the massive financial consequences at stake in battles over technological patents.

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) has today announced that the General Purpose Partition of the MareNostrum 5, a new pre-exascale supercomputer running on Lenovo's HPC infrastructure, has been classified as the top x86 general-purpose cluster on the recently published TOP500 list of the most powerful supercomputers globally.

Officially inaugurated at Barcelona Supercomputing Center on December 21st, MareNostrum 5 has been built for the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). The pre-exascale supercomputer will bolster the EU's mission to provide Europe with the most advanced supercomputing technology and accelerate the capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) research, enabling new scientific advances that will help solve global challenges. It aims to empower a wide range of complex HPC-specific applications, from climate research and engineering to material science and earth sciences, adeptly handling tasks that extend beyond the capabilities of cloud computing.

Greetings, Flameborn! In just four days, Enshrouded has attracted over a million players! We are completely blown away by its success and the overwhelmingly positive reception. From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank all our players. We're excited to let you know that this is just the beginning for Enshrouded. We are looking forward to continuing the development of the game with your support, aiming to make Enshrouded the best game it can be.

We are back to work this week and working tirelessly on the next update. We would like to thank those of you who have sent suggestions and feedback, as well as those who have reached out to share issues they've encountered. There is a lot of you but this is the start of something we want to make truly special, and thanks to your support, we're well on our way to make it happen with Enshrouded. Once again, a heartfelt thank you to everyone! The Keen Team.

Celebrating its centennial, beyerdynamic—the preferred audio brand for musicians and studio professionals around the world—is embarking on a new chapter with the announcement of a limited-edition version of the classic DT 770 PRO. Handmade in Germany, the all-new DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition blends the reference-setting features of the DT 770 PRO with the dynamic STELLAR.45 driver system's flexibility and a detachable cable. Redefining studio gear for a new era, the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition is now available for pre-order at Guitar Center and Sweetwater for $199, with wider availability to come later in the year.

FLEX MARKS THE SPOT.
In today's fluid landscape of music creation, having the flexibility to work with a variety of applications is paramount. The DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition features the convenience of a detachable Mini-XLR cable so you can move freely while you create. A recess in the headband padding also protects against the pressure-sensitive fontanelle, allowing you to wear the headphones for hours on end. With premium sound quality, replaceable parts, low impedance and high-wearing comfort, the DT 770 PRO X Limited Edition is tailor-made for studio professionals, artists, filmmakers, producers and more.

European buyers are facing a baseline MSRP of €1109 for the upcoming GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card family, thanks to extra sales taxes affecting purchases in the region's various countries. North American customers are set to "enjoy" a more reasonable entry point of $999 come January 31, including various custom options from NVIDIA's board partners—ZOTAC lead the charge with their non-overclocked offerings matching Team Green's Founders Edition MSRP. A small selection of brave retailers have already delivered GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics cards to customers, while others have simply gone live with their asking prices.

Germany's Notebooksbilliger (translation: cheaper laptops) online store has produced product pages for all sorts of custom GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER cards—prices start off at NVIDIA's €1109 baseline, and ramp up to a maximum of €1379 for the fanciest option (ASUS ROG STRIX RTX 4080 SUPER OC). A VideoCardz report focuses mostly on the cheapest products listed by Notebooksbilliger.de. Five non-overclocked custom designs sits at the bottom of the webshop's RTX 4080 SUPER pricing pile: ASUS TUF GAMING, GIGABYTE SUPER WINDFORCE, SUPER WINDFORCE V2, Inno3D X3 and ZOTAC's Trinity Black Edition. At the time of writing, Notebooksbilliger's customers cannot pre-order any of the listed GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER cards—the full checkout process could be unlocked early next week, a few days ahead of the official January 31 launch day.

Memory PC GmbH has unveiled an exclusive reskin of Sapphire Technology's standard PULSE RX 7800 XT graphics card—the German e-tailer is advertising this special edition model as a "world first," with a design that is both "unique and eye-catching." We reckon that there is some marketing spiel + exaggeration in effect here, although Memory PC's branding, messaging and extra swathes of red and white do add up to be a more visually appealing package. Sapphire's PULSE card designs tend to focus on function rather than fancy livery—the normal PULSE RX 7800 XT card is almost entirely black, save for some red line accents on its shroud and backplate, plus white text on the twin cooling fans.

This special model sports white PULSE fans with abbreviated Memory PC logo branding, while the shroud has red and white stealth-effect polygonal patterning. This effect adorns almost the entire stretch of backplate, a pixellated heart graphic and a "WE LOVE GAMING" statement sit within an island of black. The Memory PC + Sapphire Technology Navi 32 XT GPU collaboration is only available in pre-built PC systems—starting at €999, with an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X build.